EVENTS HAPPENING JUNE 24, 2009

WHAT: GOTHAM ORGANIZATION'S THIRD ANNUAL OPEN A.I.R. IN RESIDENCE SUMMER CONCERT SERIES
WHEN: 8pm
WHERE: 48th Floor Sky Terrace @ Atlas New York, 66 West 38th Street, at the corner of Sixth Avenue
CONTACT: Please RSVP to Sarah Elsbach at (212) 843-9315; selsbach@rubenstein.com. Space is limited.           
BACKGROUND: Join Atlas residents along with industry insiders for an exclusive showcase atop Atlas New York as Saint Bernadette, a jazz-rock band, perform at Gotham Organization’s Open A.I.R. Summer Concert Series. Open bar to be enjoyed by all.
 
Gotham has infused new meaning into the phrase ‘Artist In Residence’ by offering Atlas New York's 48th floor Sky Terrace as an alternative and original music venue for up-and-coming and major label artists.  At least 7 additional live musical acts are scheduled to perform throughout the summer including Indie sensation David Berkeley, who is confirmed for a July performance and pop/country singer Bri Anne Michelle who will be performing in August

EVENT HAPPENING JUNE 25, 2009

WHAT: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY TO HOST NYC GLOBAL PARTNERS JOB CREATION AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT SUMMIT
WHO: Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor of the City of New York
Marjorie B. Tiven, Commissioner, New York City Commission for the United Nations, Consular Corps and Protocol                              
Robert Kasdin, J.D., Senior Executive Vice President, Columbia University
Meyer Feldberg, Ph.D., President, New York City Global Partners
WHEN: 8:30am to 12pm
WHERE: Rotunda, Low Library, Columbia University, Morningside Heights campus, 535 West 116th Street, between Amsterdam and Broadway                 
CONTACT: Media must RSVP to Tanya Domi at 212-854-5579; td207@columbia.edu
BACKGROUND: Job Creation and Workforce Development Summit
 
Co-sponsored by New York City Global Partners, Inc., Columbia University and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Local Economic and Employment Development Programme (OECD LEED)
 
Delegations include: 
International (26 cities): 
Addis Ababa, Antwerp, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Belfast, Brussels, Budapest, Calgary, Caracas, Copenhagen, Dublin, Fortaleza, Hong Kong, Kolkata, London, Manila, Milan, Nairobi, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago,
Shanghai, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Toronto 
National (4 cities):  Miami, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York

WHAT: MEDIA PREVIEW AND OPENING RECEPTION: THE FIRST TERNA PRIZE HONORS CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ARTISTS
WHEN: 6pm to 9pm; Breakfast and refreshments 10-11am
WHERE: Chelsea Art Museum, 556 West 22nd Street (at 11th Avenue)
CONTACT: Dana Larson at 917.345.9871; larsond@ruderfinn.com, Natasha Le Bel at 212.715.1644; lebeln@ruderfinn.com or Nicollette Ramirez at 212.255.0719 x108; nicollette@chelseaartmuseum.org 
BACKGROUND: The goal of the Terna Prize is to open new avenues of discourse between culture and commerce, and to provide artists with a platform from which to be recognized by the global arts community. The Prize winners include artists of all ages, some internationally renowned and others relatively still unknown. The works, including nine photographs, three paintings and four mixed media works, were first exhibited at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome’s largest interdisciplinary exhibition venue, in November 2008.
 
In establishing the Prize, Terna worked closely with independent curator and contemporary art critic Gianluca Marziani and contemporary art advisor and curator Francesco Cascino. “The Terna Prize is not only a contest, but a cultural project that encourages dialogue and serves as a catalyst for the transmission of values among generations,” said Terna Prize Curator Gianluca Marziani. “Exhibiting these works in New York enables us to begin to internationalize the Prize and to share with new audiences the many ways in which this award connects artists through their energy and experiences.”
 
"Terna has created a unique platform through which a highly talented generation of contemporary Italian artists can be appreciated on an international scale,” said Sam Bardaouil, Chelsea Art Museum curator. “The quality and diversity is fascinating and we are delighted to play a role in introducing these artists to the New York arts community."
 
“The first Terna Prize winners reveal a fascinating range of work being produced in Italy today,” said Julián Zugazagoitia, Terna Prize jury member and Director of El Museo del Barrio in New York. “The exhibition is a wonderful opportunity to see these artists in the U.S., many for the first time.”
 
The Terna Prize for Contemporary Art was awarded in three categories: Terawatt, for established artists invited to participate, and Gigawatt and Megawatt, for emerging artists under and over the age of 35, respectively. One artist was selected as the first prize winner in each category; six additional artists were recognized and received monetary awards in the Gigawatt and Megawatt categories. The winning artists were selected by a jury of art professionals and chosen from a shortlist of 124 nominations from a total of more than 3,000 entries. The Terawatt winner received €100,000 Euros (approximately $130,000 U.S.) and, in a joint agreement with Terna, the full prize will be donated in the artist’s name to the MAXXI, the future Italian Museum of the Arts of the 21st Century. (When the MAXXI opens in Rome in November 2009, it will be the largest contemporary art museum in Europe, dedicated to collecting, preserving, studying and presenting important examples of 21st century art and architecture.) Also, one Online Award winner was chosen by the public from the entire pool of entries via the Terna Prize website and received a monetary award. All winning artworks in the Gigawatt, Megawatt and Online Award categories will be purchased by Terna and will become part of the Company’s contemporary art collection.

WHAT: "SONGS CROSS THE OCEANS AND LINK BUSINESSES". THE RTU RIGA BUSINESS SCHOOL CHOIR & THE NEW YORK MEN'S CHOIR JOINT CONCERT
WHEN: 7:30pm
WHERE: Immanuel Lutheran Church, 122 East 88 Street (corner of Lexington Avenue and 88th Street)
CONTACT: Info@latvia-newyork.org
BACKGROUND: The Consulate of Latvia in New York invites you to a unique concert featuring two outstanding „business” choirs – one from Riga, Latvia, the other from New York’s Japanese business community.
 
The RTU Riga Business School Choir, under Conductor Ein?rs Verro, brings together more than 40 successful business professionals. The majority of singers are middle and top level managers, entrepreneurs and company owners. At the same time most of the singers bring significant choral experience which has helped the Choir to reach its high level of performance. (see www.rbs.lv for more information about RBS).
 
The New York Men's Choir (NYMC) is an amateur choral group consists of Japanese businessmen work in NY. It is a successor of The NY Men's Glee Club, which was originally founded in 1991. In 2004, it evolved once again, welcoming women’s voices to become both men’s and mixed chorus, forming The Japanese Choral Society of New York (JCSNY) with Kousuke Iwasaki as the current conductor. Some highlights include singing the National Anthem at NY Yankees Stadium in 2004 and its performance at Carnegie Hall in 2005. A documentary film about the choir, 'Shall We Sing?' by Ms. Higashitani, won several awards in 2008 and was broadcasted nationwide on PBS network. (see www.nymc.net for more information about the Choir).
 
Both choirs will perform selections from their native repertoires. Come, enjoy, and let’s connect !
 
$10 adults; $7 children (tickets at the door).

EVENT HAPPENING JUNE 29, 2009

WHAT: AUGUSTUS SAINT-GAUDENS IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
WHEN: 10am to 12pm
WHERE: Rubin Museum of Art, 150 West 17th Street, at Seventh Avenue
CONTACT: Schindewolf at 212-620-5000 x335; aschindewolf@rmanyc.org
BACKGROUND: The Metropolitan Museum of Art owns some 45 sculptures by Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907), the American Beaux-Arts sculptor who worked in New York, Paris, and Cornish, New Hampshire. The Museum’s collection fully represents the range of his oeuvre—from early cameos to innovative painterly bas-reliefs to reductions after stirring public monuments for East Coast cities. Through the lens of the Museum's unparalleled holdings as well as some related loans, this exhibition will offer a reappraisal of Saint-Gaudens's groundbreaking role in the history of late 19th-century American sculpture and the Aesthetic Movement. The Eugénie Prendergast Exhibitions of American Art are made possible by a grant from Jan and Warren Adelson.

EVENT HAPPENING JUNE 30, 2009

WHAT: MEDIA PREVIEW: JOURNEY TO THE STARS
WHEN: 10:30am; Coffee will be served
WHERE: American Museum of Natural History; Please enter through the 81st Street (Planetarium) entrance between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue.
CONTACT: You may RSVP by http://www.amnh.org/museum/press/rsvp/. If you are not immediately connected to the site, please cut and paste www.amnh.org/RSVP into your browser. Alternatively, please call 212-769-5800 or communications@amnh.org
BACKGROUND: Journey to the Stars, a spectacular new Hayden Planetarium Space Show narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Whoopi Goldberg, launches visitors through time and space to experience the life and death of the stars in our night sky. Travel 13 billion years into the past, when the first stars were born, and witness brilliant supernova explosions that formed new kinds of atoms and sent them coursing through the universe, even into our own bodies and the air we breathe. Visit the heart of our fiery Sun, and glimpse its eventual demise after it transforms into an enormous red giant some five billion years in the future. Explore our galactic neighborhood, unveil new celestial mysteries, and discover the fascinating, unfolding story that connects us all to the stars.

EVENT HAPPENING JULY 1, 2009

WHAT: ONASSIS CULTURAL CENTER TO PRESENT THE FIRST NEW YORK EXHIBITION OF SCULPTURES BY KALLIOPI LEMOS
WHEN: July 1, 2009 thru the fall of 2009
WHERE: 645 Fifth Avenue (between 51st and 52nd Streets)
CONTACT: Amy Wentz at 212.715.1551; wentza@ruderfinn.com or Amanda Domizio at 212.583.2798; domizioa@ruderfinn.com                                                                 
BACKGROUND: A fleet of 15 white plaster “boats” will hover in mid-air over a fountain, bearing a metaphorical cargo of birth, migration and change, as the Onassis Cultural Center presents Perpetual Transitions, the first New York exhibition of artwork by the contemporary Greek sculptor Kalliopi Lemos.
 
Born in Greece and now based in London, Ms. Lemos began to make boatlike forms in reed and plaster in the early years of this decade and first showed them in a solo exhibition, Rites of Passage, at the Art Gallery of Cyclades (on the island of Syros) in 2006. That same year, for the Aischylia Festival in Eleusis, she created her installation Crossing, using some of the actual derelict, abandoned boats that have carried desperate migrants from Turkey to Greece. In 2007, she continued this series at Santralistanbul, the exhibition and research center on the campus of Bilgi University in Istanbul, by creating Round Voyage, an installation of two migrants’ boats suspended from a bridgelike steel span. The series will continue with an installation at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in late October and early November 2009, under the auspices of the Akademie der Künste, to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
 
For the installation in New York, a city renowned as a place of immigration, Ms. Lemos’s boats will again evoke geographic and historic passages. As in some of her earlier sculptures though, each hand-crafted plaster boat will be loaded with rounded forms—like peas in a pod—so that they also suggest more elemental, life-cycle transitions.

Useful Links

www.un.org/News/ossg/hilites.html. “Week Ahead” calendar of events at the UN can be found at this link each Friday after 3pm
www.un.org/events/index.html.  Additional information about upcoming UN events and conferences
www.nyc.gov/calendar. Office of the Mayor of New York city-wide events calendar
www.nyc.gov/html/unccp/html/international_biz/calendar.shtml. Office of the Mayor of New York International business calendar
www.nyc-arts.org. Alliance for the Arts calendar of cultural events in New York City
iec.state.gov. US State Department International events calendar
www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/appt. US State Department daily appointments schedule